Reviews/Television; Vanessa Redgrave In Williams's 'Orpheus'

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR

Published: September 24, 1990

Sir Peter Hall first directed his version of Tennessee Williams's ''Orpheus Descending'' starring Vanessa Redgrave for the London stage. Then, still with Miss Redgrave, it moved to Broadway. Now that New York production has been adapted for television by Sir Peter, using a location in Jacksonville, Fla., to simulate the nasty small-minded Two River County in Mississippi in 1948. The remarkably effective film may be seen at 8 tonight on TNT on cable television.

The production has been somewhat opened up with period cars and ferocious rainstorms, but Sir Peter carefully retains a sense of theatricality. This Williams play is, like most of the others, not naturalistic. Most of the elements, from the language to the imagery, are heightened. This is surrealistic territory, and the balance here is virtually perfect.

For the most part, the action never ventures outside the Torrance Mercantile Store, owned by the menacing Jabe Torrance (Brad Sullivan), who spends most of his time dying of cancer in an upstairs bedroom.

Downstairs, his wife, Lady (Miss Redgrave), is rediscovering love and passion with a young drifter named Valentine Xavier (Kevin Anderson). Lady and Val are outsiders in this brutishly closed community, she the daughter of an Italian immigrant killed by Ku Klux Klan members for serving liquor to blacks; he an artist, always restless, always moving. Their discovery of each other can only spell doom.

By the time this film was started in March, Miss Redgrave's understanding of Lady had become profound. That priceless asset is used here to powerful effect, making this a far more memorable experience than the early film version of the same play, ''The Fugitive Kind'' (1960) starring Anna Magnani and Marlon Brando.

Even Miss Redgrave's rather odd Italian accent is less jarring here than on the stage, perhaps because she doesn't have to project vigorously. In any event, this is as fine and perceptive an ''Orpheus Descending'' as Williams admirers are likely to get for a long, long time.

Orpheus Descending

Directed and adapted for television by Sir Peter Hall; based on the play by Tennessee Williams; director of photography, Mike Fash; editor, Edward Marnier; costumes by Allison Chitty; music by Stephen Edwards; production designer, Tom John; produced by George Manasse; Elizabeth Ireland McCann and Stuart Goodman, associate producers; Gladys Nederlander, executive producer. At 8 and 11 tonight on TNT.